Euro 2012 : TehTarik Predicts the Winner!

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For most of us football fans here in Malaysia, we will always look forward to the biannual international competitions that is in store for us. Since the last World Cup, a lot of us are looking forward to which team would do well in the upcoming Euro 2012 competition and finally, the wait is done!

[And so it begins!]

Starting from today with the first match commencing at 12am Malaysian time today, its finally time for all football nutheads here in Malaysia to find out which team you would think would win the coveted European cup this year and whether we would see any big guns going down through a surprise "giant killer" scenario in the competition.

I am sure that even for the bloggers in Malaysia, this topic will be a hot topic indeed and many would come up with so many theories and prediction within the competition but what I am more interested in is, who do you think would win and why?

Hence, I have come up with my own detailed prediction for the competition!

[CLICK ON GAME SCHEDULE TO SEE IT IN ITS ORIGINAL SIZE!]

First up, we have the grouping stage.

For Group A, I believe that the two teams that would go through would go to Czech Republic winning the group and Poland getting the second place. Reason is that Czech Republic, despite their underdog status in the competition, have always been the surprise performer when it comes to international competition and for Poland because of their homeground advantage of course.

Group B a.k.a the Group of Death is a tough one to choose from. Despite that, my prediction is that the Dutch will get the top spot for the group followed by the Germans taking second place. From their performance in the last World Cup, they have been pretty impressive with their performance and with the advent of two in for strikers in their midst, they have a good chance of going through top. Germany, being the young and strong team in the competition, may have some hiccups in their friendly tournaments but should have enough ammo to edge the rest in the group.

Group C sees the reigning champion in the midst of strong teams as well, but my prediction will obviously go to Spain winning the group and the Italians getting second. These are the only two teams that really do stand out in the group and I believe that not many would disagree with me in this prediction.

Group D we have several uncertain teams but I would put my bet on Ukraine winning the competition and France getting the second place. I know that I did not include England in that mix but for the reason that the team does not even show much threat even from the line up is the reason why I feel the other two teams stand out more in the competition that the other two.

So that would leave us to the quarter finals

First Quarter Final, I will give it to the Germans to trump the Czechs easily. Despite them being second in the group, the team has far more superior players in comparison to the other which does leave to the obvious evaluation to this prediction.

Second Quarter Final, The Dutch will run away with a win here despite getting stiff competition from the home team. I have very little doubt that the Dutch attacking machinery would have much problem in dismantling the Poland defence in this round.

Third Quarter Final, this one may be a little difficult to predict but I believe that Spain would edge the French by a slight margin on this one. The French team may have creative ammo on the midfield but the Spanish may have a stronger margin when it comes to the complete package of the team. Even so, this one is a tough match.

Fourth Quarter Final, the Italians defence will prevail by the skin of their neck from a stiff opposition against the Ukrainian home team. This one I am not too sure but from my gut, I believe that this would be the outcome of this round.

Thus comes the much anticipated semi finals

Semi Final 1 will get the most attention I reckon. The grudge rematch between the Spanish and the Germans. My prediction is the Germans edging out the Spaniards in extra time in a gruelling match between the two and I honestly think this would be the one to look out for.

Semi Final 2 is a match that would showcase between defensive tactics versus player creativity. To some extend, the Dutch may have a slightly stronger advantage when it comes to player form at the moment, despite Juventus' momentous achievement this year. I still predict that the Dutch will get the win on this one.

And the winner that I will predict between the Dutch and Germans in the finals is....

[THE GERMANS!]

So that is how I see the competition is going to fold out and with that prediction, I think it is pretty obvious which team do I support coming into this competition. Despite the favourites coming in from the other teams, I believe that the team this year has a strong composition of technical and creative players in the team and since it is almost the same team that was reeling with their lost in the last World Cup, I believe that they are now hungry for revenge.